Patz & Hall Chardonnay Sonoma Coast

The wine is popped, aired and iced for an hour, before drinking. It pours a pale golden color with moderate legs. At 14.2% abv, this chardonnay is quite strong but the alcohol was hardly present in the nose. Instead, there is a bouquet of bananas, wheat grass, butter, tropical fruits, honeysuckle and lemon custard in the end. This is your typical Cali chardonnay - concentrated, buttery but not fat. Decent extraction judging from the concentration on the nose. On the …

Straw yellow. Nose of oak, pear, lime. Tastes of apple and pear but I also get some autolytic notes and some butter. Medium body, medium finish, medium minus acidity and medium length.A benchmark wine for the price.

Buttery oak

Bright straw with a green tinge. Toasty, buttery aromas of apples, pears, and a touch of spice. The mid-weight palate possesses a good cut, with tasty notes of pears, lemon citrus, lemon curd, and vanilla, picking up a sliver of jack fruit before closing with crisp minerality on the finish. The winemaker's deft use of oak allows this wine to flaunt its Sonoma Coast roots. Well done. 89++

Good but a little light, the fruit is nice (apple/pear) but lacking some in terms of minerality and structure.

What a classy bottle of California Chardonnay. Avoids potential death moves this category is prone to. Deftly threads the needle to find satisfying aromas and flavors of lime, vanilla, and lemon curd without taking on a candy-like qualities. Perfect medium weight. The more I try from Patz & Hall the more I like them. A benchmark producer.

Lighter bodied and buttery with flavors of lemon, lime, and vanilla. Much better than the Waterstone Carneros which had been drank earlier.

Clear, bright yellow. Nose is oak, apple and citrus but pleasantly integrated. Palate is med + acidity, citrus, green apple. Very drinkable. Drink now and enjoy or it will age with grace and become something different but I believe very nice.

I really enjoyed this. Basic north coast chard with fresh and zesty lemon some white fruit including apples and pear. Crisp finish with well-integrated toast and oak.

Needs to breath for a good 30 minutes- then it's balanced and crisp with a nice tart finish. Went well with corvina ceviche and ahi tuna salad.

A Thursday Night Embarassment of Riches (Weygandt Wines - Washington, D.C.) : Aromas of peanut shell, buttered popcorn and green apple. Actually some solid acid on the palate, nice bit of kick. Flavors of lemon candy, butter and green apple. I like the cut to this wine.

Weygandt Wine BYO (Weygandt Wines, Cleveland Park, Washington D.C.) : Pretty straight forward, buttery chard. Did have nice lemon, pear and apple notes on the palate but didn't really turn out anything incredibly memorable.

oak butter bomb

West of West Wine Festival; 8/4/2012-8/5/2012 (Occidental Center for the Arts, Occidental, California) : Light yellow color; French oak, ripe pear, white jasmine nose; rich but poised, tart pear, mineral, tart apple palate; medium-plus finish